Maybe the next statue that is erected at St. Louis University should be of Fred Pestello. He deserves it.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

At its best, Ignatian leadership is able to hold multiple perspectives in parity, all in service of collective inquiry and ultimately social justice. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial describes the leadership of Dr. Fred Pestello, President of St. Louis University, through the first eight months of taking office. The practice of suspending judgements, assumptions and certainties enables greater perspective and inherently widens the scope of dialogue. As pointed out by the @STLtoday editorial board, this is the honorable tradition of universities.

Listening is the most underrated of leadership skills, leading to a disconnect between leaders and the situation. Otto describes four levels of listening. This is essential viewing for anyone desiring to truly understand situations.

The challenge is not to get them to talk, because everybody will talk, but to get them to listen. This is true of humans everywhere: The receptors in our brain for information consistent with our prior beliefs are large and wide open, but the receptors for information that’s contrary to them are much narrower. So we don’t listen well to people we dislike or with whom we have a disagreement. It requires effort and discipline to get people to consider what the other side has to say. That’s why these things take so long.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

With warring factions, how do you start a dialogue?

"The challenge is not to get them to talk, because everybody will talk, but to get them to listen. This is true of humans everywhere: The receptors in our brain for information consistent with our prior beliefs are large and wide open, but the receptors for information that’s contrary to them are much narrower. So we don’t listen well to people we dislike or with whom we have a disagreement. It requires effort and discipline to get people to consider what the other side has to say. That’s why these things take so long."

In today's fast-moving world, we are under pressure to act now and seldom take time to consider the facts. We want to believe that a well-established journalist would be trustworthy, after all fact-checking is the root of journalism.

Kevin Boyle demonstrates how easily and quickly we climb the "Ladder of Inference." At the bottom of the ladder we have the reality and facts. From there, each one of us selects what part of the story we are going to focus on based on our beliefs and prior experience. We apply our existing assumptions and make the facts fit the story that we have created in our imagination. Boyle points out, each time our story is triggered we have the possibility of embellishing the story line. The "Ladder of Inference" helps you to slow down and consider better conclusions based on facts and reality. You can also use it to help validate or challenge other people's conclusions.

In trying times is more important than ever to consider the feelings of those around you. We are all in our own bubble, with our own unique perspective on the world, and it is crucial for our personal development to understand how other people experience the world

The commander in chief reflects on the election results and how he'll spend his time post-White House.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

Dialogue is rooted in an attitude of respect and the conviction that we seek the perspectives of other cultures, other ways of thinking, other beliefs. Obama, in his final Rolling Stone interview in the White House, highlights the cultural and communication challenges of today. The need to intensify Dialogue has never been greater.

"One of the challenges that we’ve been talking about now is the way social media and the Internet have changed what people receive as news."

"The biggest challenge that I think we have right now in terms of this divide is that the country receives information from completely different sources."

"People are no longer talking to each other; they're just occupying their different spheres,"

The writings of the Jewish sage Martin Buber offer a distraction from election anxiety.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

The conservative commentator, David Brooks reminds us of the importance of relationships in the midst of this contentious USA Presidential campaign. Brooks urges us to read Martin Buber and not the polls for direction. For Martin Buber the highest perfection of relationships is found in inclusion and Dialogue. Unless we can let go of reflexive tendencies and submit to the presence of mutuality, we are going to continue to be trapped in the I-It relationships and view others as dispensable objects for personal consumption and power.

An investigation into trigger warnings, safe spaces, and how students conduct their discourse surrounding Georgetown's political climate.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

Safe Spaces are echo chambers that demand political correctness, protection from discussions and ideas that offend the identities a person associates with. You are safe as long as you agree. Dialogue creates a ‘Brave Space’ to explore difficult, challenging and diverse beliefs while making sure that nobody feels diminished. ‘Brave Spaces’ are harder but promote growth and strengthens community.

In times of trauma, modern-day technology connects us instantly. But could it be that genetic memory metabolizes much more slowly? Courtney Martin juxtaposes modern day urgency with a long view of legacy.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

The extent to which individuals are defined by their experiences and memories is at the heart of the PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) research. We are learning more and more about the long-term impact of trauma and stress on our neural functioning and internal mind-scape. We are sensitized by past events. Courtney Martin raises the very interesting concept of the influence of our genetic history - the inherited memories, feelings and ideas that we gained from our ancestors.

Our shared history of a nation built on slavery is unresolved trauma that results in persistent chaos and rigidity. Each of us has been shaped by this history, it is a part of our DNA. In the individual, chaos and rigidity exposes a brain with impaired integration. In our nation we collectively suffer from impaired integration. When we feel threatened or disordered we cannot feel connected, open, harmonious, engaged, receptive, empathic or compassionate.

There is no possibility of Dialogue without doing the deeper work. Martin invites us to a contemplative and mindful exploration of our inner experience, our own implicit memory, and our "collective unconscious." When we can acknowledge the layers of memory to the interpretation of the violent upheaval we are experiencing in our nation, then we can come to see our inner experience from a new and liberating perspective.

How we ask each other questions can evoke a deeper sense of self. Words of advice from Parker Palmer and a poem by Denise Levertov on the power of asking with good intention, and hearing each other into being.

Annette Schmeling's insight:

A beautiful question, generated from loving curiosity, can begin a shift in the way that we perceive or think about something. When we suspend our judgments and familiar ways of knowing and free us from entrenched thinking. Contemplative Dialogue invites connections and questions and enables shared meaning and the possibility of a new worldview. "Yes, perhaps this gift is your answer."

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